Our research into tectonics and mountain building covers the processes and mechanisms relating to how mountains form on the surface of our planet and how the continental crust deforms from the macroscale to the microscale. In particular, our research focuses on mountain belts that form during continent-continent collision, such as the modern Himalayas and Caucasus and the ancient Caledonides. We try to unravel how, when and how quickly the mountain belts formed, the tectonic processes and mechanisms in operation during their uplift, and how their growth fed back into the solid Earth-surface processes-climate system. We achieve this through a combination of geochronology, structural geology, geochemical studies and metamorphic/igneous petrology.

Mountain Dynamics is a key theme in our Dynamic Earth Research Group.

At any one time we commonly have two or three full-time PhD students, and have regular discussion meetings about the latest data from the laboratory and results/interpretations in recently published literature.

Potential supervisors

Professor Nigel Harris – links between tectonics and magmatism, the role of mountains in the Earth system, comparative tectonics along the Tethyan orogenic belts, how mountain building impacts on global climate